'Treat the elderly as humans, not tasks': NHS chief gives nurses a lesson in basic care

Nurses are being told to stop seeing the elderly as ‘tasks to be completed’.

They will be urged to consider each patient as somebody’s grandparent, mother or father, rather than merely a ‘condition’.

In a speech today, Sir Keith Pearson, chairman of the NHS Confederation, an umbrella body for organisations that provide NHS services, will tell nurses to ‘look behind the mask of sickness and frailty’ and see the individual.

Better care: Nurses are being told to treat the elderly with more respect

With nursing standards coming under increasing scrutiny, critics of the profession are likely to ask why such basic guidance should be necessary and why a caring approach is not ingrained in all health workers.

Sir Keith is calling for hospitals and care homes to ‘stamp out undignified care’ and ensure every patient is treated with respect.

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His speech at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, will warn that examples of poor care ‘crop up far too often’.

Sir Keith is leading a group of experts who are attempting to change the culture of the NHS to ensure patients are always treated with compassion.

HAVE THOUSANDS OF NURSING POSTS BEEN AXED?

Over the past two years the Royal College of Nursing has repeatedly issued dire warnings that thousands of nursing posts are facing the axe.

Ministers have always denied these claims, consistently stating they ‘do not recognise’ the RCN’s figures.

Yesterday the union issued yet another report with figures showing that since March 2010, two months before the Coalition was formed, a total of 3,588 nursing and midwifery posts have gone.

Again, the Government denied these claims and said initially said that there were actually only 450 fewer nursing posts.

They pointed out that the overall number of clinical roles – which include doctors, scientists, radiologists as well as nurses – had increased.

But the NHS’s own figures show that the RCN are right – there were 311,787 nursing posts in March 2010 compared with just 308,199 now.

And yesterday for the first time Health Secretary Andrew Lansley conceded that the NHS had lost ‘about’ 3,500 nurses.

The Government are correct to state that the clinical posts have gone up, though – there are 3,556 more compared with two years ago.

Many of these include scientists, radiologists who carry out x-rays and sonographers who perform ultrasounds, as well as doctors.

The panel – the Commission on Improving Dignity in Care for Older People – was set up last year after a series of damning reports exposed widespread neglect in hospitals.

Sir Keith will recount to nurses the harrowing case of one elderly man who had been allowed to become so dehydrated that he could not even cry for help.

The neglected patient died three days later from stomach cancer at the Royal Bolton Hospital. His case was one of several examples of poor care highlighted in a report by the Health Service Ombudsman last year.

Sir Keith will tell nurses: ‘This is not the care, or the end-of-life experience, that any of us want to see. But I recognise, and I am sure you recognise that these examples are cropping up far too often.

‘We cannot simply dismiss them as isolated incidents. For they are not just unacceptable instances of care, they also eat away at the reputation of the NHS, social care and our caring professions.’

He will add: ‘As individuals and as a profession, we must not see patients – particularly older people in our care – as a condition or a task to be completed.

‘Behind the mask of sickness and frailty is a mother, a father and grandparent. Behind that same mask of sickness and frailty also lies a former teacher, a former postmistress, a former soldier.’

The reports last year prompted accusations that NHS staff, particularly nurses, were neglecting the needs of vulnerable patients.

Nurses insist that the vast majority of the profession intend to provide the highest standards of care but say they are often unable to do so because wards are so understaffed.

Earlier this week nurses told the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley that they are routinely being forced to look after up to 18 patients at a time.

They also warned that cost-cutting hospitals are replacing senior nurses with cheap, untrained healthcare assistants.

Figures have revealed that more than 3,500 nursing posts have been axed in the past two years as hospitals attempt to meet strict savings targets.